Knowing the behaviors you want from your team and how they link to results is one of the keys to creating a strong culture.
Leaders who create a strong culture of outstanding performance will find that performance strengthens their culture. By strengthening the culture, the likelihood of better results and performance increases. This is known as a virtuous circle.
You need to be careful though—the dynamic works in the opposite direction as well. Bad behavior begets bad performance, which leads to more bad behavior, and ultimately a bad culture. I know one senior executive who always used to ask people, “How much money have you made me today?” That simple question flowed through all the behaviors in the organization. Everyone focused on financials, but it was at the expense of creating a great culture.
Let me share an example of how to build a virtuous circle. Read more
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Making your organization a well-oil machine, that operates faster and more efficiently, is something every business has been after for years. Here’s how to do it.
Today’s post is by Maureen Metcalf, a principle here at thoughtLEADERS.
Many organizations feel the need to be thinner, faster, stronger, more adaptable, more profitable, etc. The right toolset to get them to that outcome may not be intuitive or singular. Building organizational agility is a solid approach to help organizations develop the capacity to perpetually evolve. It enables them to accelerate their ability to sense and adapt to the volume, complexity and rate of change organizations face in the current environment. We believe business agility is comprised of four main elements: strategist leadership, nimble culture, lean principles and agile methods.
The Challenge
Change is accelerating across all sectors of organizational life largely driven by technology, geopolitical changes and strong academic research. This accelerating change in disparate sectors comes together to drive organizations to develop the capacity to perpetually evolve, often quickly, to set trends or respond to forces that are changing the market. While this volume and pace of change seem daunting, the most successful organizations are addressing it by developing organizational agility.
According to a January 2018 article in McKinsey Quarterly, “The urgency imperative places a premium on agility: it enables the shift to emergent strategy, while unleashing your people so they can reshape your business in real time. It’s also a powerful means of minimizing confusion and complexity in our world of rapid-fire digital communications where everyone can talk with everyone else — and will, gumming up the works if you don’t have a sensible set of operating norms in place. Agility is also the ideal way to integrate the power of machine-made decisions, which are going to become increasingly important to your fundamental decision system.”
Our reader poll today asks: Where do you spend the majority of your time and energy on people leadership?
I spend it mostly with my high performers 36.67%
I spend it mostly with my average performers 35.83%
I spend it mostly with my low performers 27.50%
The Best Use of Your Time. A large portion of you report spending most of your time and energy on your high performers. The question is, what is your return on that time investment? Do they really need you spending that much time with them or are you spending it there because it’s fun and easy? Why aren’t you spending more time with your low performers helping them improve? There may be bigger gains there in terms of the time investment to performance improvement ratio. Ask yourself if your high performers really need that much of your time. They might feel like you’re wasting their time or that you’re micromanaging them. Take a step back. Give them space to grow. Reinvest that time in average performers to boost them to the next level or your low performers getting them up to the standard. Your time is a finite resource – get the highest return out of it that you can!
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Learn how to build and maintain your organization’s culture by studying these six components of high-performing cultures.
A high-performing culture is one where people drive performance because of the right behaviors. They’ve embedded these behaviors in their everyday life. People in high-performing cultures require less supervision. They’re empowered to achieve goals that are consistent with the organization’s direction. As a leader, you need to understand how to build a high-performing culture and your responsibilities for making it happen. I’ve found that there are six components to building a high-performing culture. Read more
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Our reader poll today asks: How willing are you to call out hidden agendas that are unproductive and slowing down projects?
Very: I have zero patience for hidden agendas that affect team work 29.91%
Somewhat: But I only call them out when they’re blatant and obvious 54.52%
Not very: I have a hard time calling them out and hope someone else will 13.39%
Not at all: I always back away from conflict like this 2.18%
Shining a spotlight on hidden agendas. Many of you call out hidden agendas when you see them in an effort to reach productive resolution. For the 55% of you who only do it when it’s blatant, consider calling them out when they’re less egregious. Once people learn not to play games and hide agendas, they’ll be less likely to do so around you and therefore you’ll deal with fewer egregious situations. For the 15% of you who are reluctant to call these situations out, realize that if they’re not, these people become emboldened to continue doing it in more and more situations. Perhaps start with a one-on-one conversation about a lesser item so you can get comfortable with doing so and work your way up to calling these unproductive behaviors out more confidently in the future.
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It’s easy to neglect your core responsibilities as a leader when it involves having uncomfortable conversations. Learn how to develop a maxim to overcome uncomfortable situations.
As a leader, one of your chief responsibilities is developing the members of your team. Great leaders build more leaders. You have to commit to their growth and create new opportunities for them to expand and learn new skills. That’s hard to do because for somebody to learn a new skill, you’re going to have to create an opportunity for them to do something they may not have done before. In doing that, you create risk because that individual might fail. And if they fail, that failure reflects on you. So a lot of times we’re afraid to take those risks on people to create growth opportunities.
That’s why you need a maxim to remind yourself that one of your chief responsibilities is doing that development work for the members of your team. My maxim to remind me that my chief responsibility is to develop people is, “It’s easier to correct course 100 yards into the journey than 100 miles.” I had a member of my team who was having some problems. One day he gave me some numbers and a report, and the numbers were off. I said, “Well, it doesn’t seem like a big deal. I’ll figure it out tomorrow.” I did this because I knew it was going to be a slightly uncomfortable conversation to have with him. A few days later, I heard about an interaction between this individual and a member of his team that hadn’t gone very well. I said, “I’m gonna need to talk to him about that. I’m not happy with what I’m hearing, but I’m not gonna do it today. Maybe I’ll do it next week.” The following week, I went past his office and he was berating a member of his team. He was speaking to them in a very condescending tone. I said, “I’m really gonna have to talk to him about this, but I’m not gonna do it today because he’s not in a good mood. The feedback won’t be well received.” I put off that more difficult conversation. I kept avoiding times when I should have given this individual some feedback.
Well, one day he came to me and said he was resigning. He had found another job and he was going to go work elsewhere. I was so excited because my problem was now gone. On the way home, I called one of my colleagues and I was relaying the good news, saying, “Hey, he quit—the guy who’s been giving me all the trouble. I don’t have to deliver the feedback now. He’s leaving the organization.” My colleague called me on it. He said, “Mike, you failed.” And I said, “What do you mean? How did I fail? He left. The problem is gone.” And my colleague said, “You failed every member of his team because your job as a leader isn’t just leading that individual. It’s leading the entire organization. Those people were getting beaten up on a regular basis. He was hurting their morale. And they were probably looking to you to solve that issue. You failed every member of that team. You have to remember that correcting course is easier 100 yards into the journey than 100 miles. You should have had the difficult conversation sooner because you could have either corrected performance or taken appropriate disciplinary action if he didn’t change the way he was operating.”
My colleague was right. I had failed the members of that team. So this maxim reminds me that when development conversations need to happen, I need to get over the fact that it’s going to be an uncomfortable conversation. I need to just have the discussion. It’s hard to do, but this maxim has changed my behavior on several occasions. There have been times when other members of my team since then have done something that I wasn’t exactly happy with. And my initial instinct was, “Well, I’ll just wait. It’ll fix itself.” And I said, “No. My maxim says I need to go have that conversation right now.” When I’ve done that, I’ve been very happy with the result because we correct behavior, get people pointed in the right direction, and do so before the problem gets bigger.
As you think about your team and about your responsibility to build leaders, to develop and challenge people, how are you going to remind yourself to take those kinds of risks? How are you going to remind yourself to have those difficult conversations when they need to happen? Has there been a time in your past where you created a growth opportunity for somebody and they succeeded well beyond your wildest dreams? Or a time where you avoided giving some tough feedback and there were bad consequences that occurred because you didn’t step up to the plate as a leader? Within those situations is where you’re going to find your maxims. Find that trigger. Find those words that were used in that conversation or the name of the project where the person succeeded. That phrase, that trigger, is what’s going to bring you back to that situation. It’s what is going to remind you of those feelings and get you to behave in a different way.
I know my maxim does that for me. When I have that difficult situation and I think of my maxim, I remember how uncomfortable that conversation was with my colleague when he told me I had failed. I remember how embarrassed I was of my failure as a leader. Those feelings drive me to change my behavior now because I never want to be that disappointed in myself again or that embarrassed. So you know what? I’m going to take action today. That’s how having a maxim based on something in the past can drive your performance in the future.
Want to learn more about developing your leadership philosophy? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to develop your leadership philosophy. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Our reader poll today asks: How effective are you at saying “no” to requests you shouldn’t take on?
Extremely good: I am great at giving a firm “no” 10.71%
Good: I can usually say “no” but sometimes waver 45.33%
Not good: I say “yes” way more often than I should 40.46%
Not at all good: I can’t ever seem to say the word “no” 3.50%
The art of “no.” A large portion of you (45%) struggle with saying “no” and likely end up with way too much work on your plate. This usually results from wanting to be a team player, wanting to be valued, wanting to be liked, or not fully assessing where the new work fits alongside everything else you’re doing. Before saying “yes,” pause. Take a moment to assess where this new request fits in with other work on your plate. If it doesn’t fit, explain to the requestor what else you’re working on. Tell them what it would take to take on the new work (more resources, deprioritizing something else, stopping another project, etc.). Once the requestor sees the tradeoff they’d need to make, it helps them put your “no” into a broader context and understand why you can’t take on the work.
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Staying in touch with your team’s day-to-day challenges is important. It shows you’re willing to get out there, get dirty, and understand their jobs.
One of the worst types of leaders to work for is the one who’s checked out—the one who has no basis in reality or understanding of what their team does. These individuals don’t always appreciate the hard work that the team does. They also don’t understand the challenges and constraints that the team faces, which can lead that leader to put unreasonable expectations on the team. You need a reminder to stay in touch with your team’s reality. To get out there, get dirty, and understand their jobs. Getting dirty can also get you respect.
My reminder and my maxim for staying in touch with my team’s reality is a very simple statement: “He’s under the tank, sir.” When I was in the army as a young platoon leader, there was a field problem. We were out in the field, and we were pulling maintenance on the vehicles. The colonel, who was a very senior officer, came looking for me, probably to yell at me. He was always yelling at me for one reason or another. He came up to my tank and walked up to my driver who was an 18-year-old buck private. My driver saluted and the colonel saluted him. The colonel asked my driver, “Where’s Lieutenant Figliolo?” My driver pointed to a pair of boots sticking out from under the tank. The colonel looked at my driver quizzically and replied, “No, where’s Lieutenant Figliolo?” I was an officer, and in the colonel’s mind, officers are not under tanks. So my driver again pointed to the pair of boots sticking out from under the tank. He said, “He’s under the tank, sir.”
The colonel bent over and yelled my name. I sat up under the tank, smacked my head, and crawled out from under the vehicle. The colonel said, “What are you doing under the tank?” I said, “I’m fixing the track, sir.” He looked confused and asked me why I was fixing the track. Again, the colonel had a view that officers don’t fix track. Officers give orders and read maps. He said, “Why are you fixing the track?” I said, “‘Cause it’s broken.” He got very confused and stormed off. He forgot why he was even there to talk to me.
Well, the reason I was under that tank and my driver wasn’t was because my driver had been at it all night. He was exhausted. I saw he needed a break, so I told him, “You know what? My work is done, I’m done with the map, and I’m done with the orders. Give me the wrench and let me go work on it for a little bit.” I crawled under that tank and I turned a wrench. That story got around the unit before lunch time. I had soldiers from other units coming to me and saying, “Hey sir, do you have any room in your platoon? I think I’d like to come work for you.”
I did it because it was the right thing. I had a member of my team who was tired. I went in and did the same work that they did. But that choice, that decision to crawl in the mud and turn a wrench, sent a very strong and clear message to the members of the entire unit. It said, “I’m not above any work that I ask you to do.” It built a great deal of respect for me. It also helped me understand the challenges that the members of my organization face on a daily basis. I learned that you bang your knuckles up a lot under that tank, that it gets cold under there. I had a better appreciation for all the hard work that they do for me.
So as you think about staying in touch with your team’s reality, how are you going to remind yourself to step away from the computer, to get out of your office, and get out there to see what your team does? How are you going to demonstrate that you can do their job just as well as they can and that you’re not above anything you ask them to do? Has there been a leader in your past who rolled up their sleeves and got dirty side by side with you? Think about how you felt about that leader. Think about how much respect you gave them after that.
Conversely, have there been leaders that you worked with who tended to sit in their office? Have there been leaders who weren’t willing to get dirty and believed that the rest of the organization should work hard while they do something else? Think about how little respect you had for that individual. These stories are the basis for your maxim. Think about the trigger, whether it’s something somebody said, the name of the project that you were on, or the particular piece of work that was being done. Use that trigger to transport you back to that story so you can feel those feelings again, whether they’re good ones or they’re frustrated ones.
That trigger becomes your maxim. You can share the maxim and the entire story with the members of your team, and say, “He’s under the tank, sir.” Here’s the story behind it and here’s what you can expect from me as your leader. That maxim will be your reminder to make sure you stay connected to your team’s reality, build respect, and understand the challenges that your team faces.
Want to learn more about developing your leadership philosophy? How about taking an entire course on it? Go directly to the course and start learning how to develop your leadership philosophy. The entire course is available at LinkedIn Learning. Enjoy!
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Our reader poll today asks: What’s your view of working on weekends?
I forbid it and just won’t do it 5.55%
I’ll only do it if it’s an emergency 56.20%
I’ll do it if I don’t have any personal plans 23.26%
I like doing it because it’s quiet and I can focus 14.99%
Setting boundaries. More than 60% of respondents say they won’t work on a weekend unless it’s an extreme situation (or at all, for that matter). A small group of you enjoy the weekend work time because of the quiet and ability to focus. For that group, just be sure you’re getting some of that time back during the week however that might be appropriate (compensatory time, half days, work from home, etc.). For the 23% who do it if you don’t have personal plans, beware of that slippery slope. Work could become your default and your life might slip into not making personal plans because you’re expecting to work. Balance takes effort. Be clear on your boundaries and understand when you’re violating them (or someone else is asking to violate them). Your wellbeing should come first.
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Our reader poll today asks: How would you characterize the majority of people in your organization?
They’re big thinkers: They see the broader picture and focus on big ideas 15.43%
They’re average thinkers: They occasionally pursue big ideas but mostly focus on the day to day 56.92%
They’re small thinkers: They’re stuck in focusing on small tasks that don’t make a big difference 27.65%
Getting unstuck. It seems there’s a balance of big thinkers and people who are able to balance big thoughts with actually getting stuff done. Where things get challenging is for the folks who are stuck focusing on small tasks that don’t have a huge impact. That’s untapped potential for your organization and 28% of your workforce occupying that space is likely way too much. Help people get unstuck. Ask them what they’re working on and de-prioritize or stop small tasks. They might not feel like they can say no so say no for them. Relieve them of that burden and free them to work on bigger, more important projects. Consider the opportunity cost of them working on a small task versus what they could deliver on a larger one. That usually makes the decision pretty easy when it comes to stopping a piece of work.
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Treating your people like individuals makes them feel seen and improves their performance. Learn how to develop a maxim for treating your team members as individuals.
No one wants to be treated like a faceless cog in the machine. We all want to be known as individuals. We want to feel like our wants and needs are important, especially to our leaders. The members of your team expect the same of you. We all need maxims to remind us to stop treating our people as a functional roles, like my analyst, my project manager, or my team member. We need to think of them as Joe and Susan and Bill.
When I was in the army, I had a soldier who was a problem child. Read more
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Our reader poll today asks: How much do you procrastinate when it comes to work tasks?
Not at all: I jump on tasks and never put anything off 10.5%
Somewhat: I’ll put off a few small things occasionally 61.93%
A lot: I put off most things until time becomes critical 22.24%
A ton: I’ll answer this poll later… 5.33%
Beware the avalanche. It’s easy to procrastinate. A small task here. A little job there. In isolation, they seem pretty easy to catch up on. And 90% of you admit to putting off those small things from time to time (or more frequently). But then the storm hits. An unexpected event. A large, unforeseen project. An illness. A coworker leaves and you have their responsibilities. That’s when the payment is due – all those small tasks you’ve been putting off now reach critical mass and they all start slipping. That’s when things fall off the table or quality drops. To save yourself the stress of these times, invest in your time management skills. Maintain rigorous task lists and track progress. And when the temptation comes along to say “I’ll just do it later” ask yourself if you can afford to wait and what’s stopping you from doing it now.
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